Chicken Calling
by Arteset
Summary: Had Brother Bear and Too Tall ever hung out together? Maybe that's what intrigued Brother Bear the most. An alternate take on the friendship of Brother Bear and Too Tall Grizzy. Leaning on the B.l. slash side. K for the verbal abuse on furball...


A/N: What line have I crossed I wonder? Enjoy some platonic Too Tall and Brother Bear and of course _The Berenstain Bears_ belong to Stan and Jan Berenstain.

* * *

He'd been dee double dared into going to farmer Ben's manure field and steal a watermelon. His reputation as a cub was on the line, and Brother Bear was no chicken.

It might have been the adrenaline in Brother that kept him so focused on the dare that he failed to notice Too Tall and his gang take several steps back until the gang reached the main road.

"But Too Tall don't you want to see the look on Brother's face when he gets caught?" Smirk asked.

"NAH," Skuzz interjected "Too Tall's too busy to care about Brother. Right?" He looked over at Too Tall who had suddenly stopped.

"So where're we going?" Skuzz asked Too Tall.

"Didn't you guys said you had to do something? Weren't you guys rushing to hang out earlier cuz your folks…"

"Shoot! You're right!" Both cubs exclaimed, "we'll see ya later Too Tall!" And soon nothing but the dust kept Too Tall company.

He wasted no time and found his way back to the forest. Making sure none of the usual berry pickers or bee keepers in the area were in his path, he picked up his speed. He ducked a couple branches and pulled a couple of willow leaves out of his face. Last but not least, he carefully skipped over large rocks to his spot.

Moments after Farmer Ben grabbed his arm, a scowl on the older bear's face, did Brother Bear realize that he had compared himself to a farm animal despite being a small bear himself. He sat through the lecture and realized more things: his self- esteem was threatened with a stupid farm animal, Farmer Ben was generous and wouldn't tell on him, and hopefully he could eat more watermelon.

He got to take half of the watermelon home after he promised Farmer Ben that if he was going to be a farm animal he might as well be a chicken instead of a sheep. He swaggered, as much as a fifth grade cub could anyway, over to find Too Tall and his gang who ran as soon as the slightest hint of danger. But he was ready to share his watermelon with them as an apology accepted despite the fact they let him take the heat alone.

It wasn't long before he spotted the familiar purple cap of Too Tall. Odd, his classmatewas alone by the thin creek, skipping stones and humming.

Brother Bear sucked his breath in, all of a sudden he wasn't so sure he wanted to swagger in and demand for Sister's jump rope. He didn't like this feeling, this rising curiosity to see how Too Tall was when he's alone. Brother had never seen Too Tall alone. He walked to school and back home with Queenie, he hung out with his gang or teammates (depending what sport he had joined for that season), and recently he was hanging out with Milton because the farm hand was teaching him sick wrestling moves.

Had Brother Bear and Too Tall _ever_ hung out together? Maybe that's what intrigued Brother Bear the most. And wasn't this the perfect chance? A quiet spot by the creek and half a watermelon to share; however, the more Brother entertained the thought the more it lost its appeal. He snapped out of his thoughts and looked over again. Too Tall was smiling up at the sunshine filtered through the trees and rubbing a colored stone in his paw. Serene- everything about his classmate was just that. Brother squashed any hope of joining Too Tall. It was too…personal. He turned to leave but not before accidentally snapping a twig.

"Whose there?" Too Tall warned, furrowing his brows and dropping the stone like it were a hot coal, "come out!"

But by then Brother Bear's speeding, as fast as the watermelon lets him, to the opposite side of the forest and back to his tree home; sister would just get her jump rope some other day.

* * *

His yearbook was missing one signature- Too Tall's. Brother's spent the last week of school collecting his signatures anytime except during class because _of course_ he paid attention in Teacher Bob's class…yeah….

_Or you're too chicken to ask for his signature_, Brother chided himself. He nearly spit out his milk. Force of habit he supposed, he can't seem to shake off the chicken calling or the Too Tall incident, as he's dubbed it.

It would be rude not to have his signature because despite their ups and downs, they're friends. But Brother didn't want Too Tall to sign his yearbook with his usual smirk as he looks down at him. That was Too Tall for you, a cub who liked to keep the show on the road.

Why can't the Too Tall by the creek be the one to sign his yearbook?

"Uh…Brother," Cousin Fred asked, waving his paw in front of Brother's face, "is everything okay? You've been frowning at your sandwich an awful long time."

"Maybe it's spoiled," piped in Lenny, "you don't want to get ingestion Brother. Betcha don't know what indigestion means."

Cousin Fred gave Lenny a look but said nothing. It gave Brother enough time to swallow his forgotten sandwich bite and reply, "the sandwich is fine guys. Guess it's hard to imagine that we're six graders next year."

The table must have heard him or something because suddenly everyone was babbling about the six grade teachers and fieldtrips as well as what came after graduation: _junior high school_.

His friends however went back to their previous discussion. Cousin Fred patiently listened to Lenny's smart aleck retort on indigestion and Brother was left alone with his thoughts again. Not to say they didn't care about junior high or the six grade mythology exhibition project or even the big six grade dance but pressing matters were at hand for Brother Bear.

He smiled, but it was an anxious grin; what the heck was that about the _other_ Too Tall? He took another bite of his sandwich. There's only one Too Tall, and he's the guy who made fun of others but apologized; the guy who bragged about being tough but couldn't stand spicy tacos for too long. And Too Tall hadn't done anything special by the creek, just skip rocks. But he was smiling peacefully- something that Brother wouldn't mind seeing his classmate do more often.

But what about the talent show and Brother Bear's search for the mystery voice? Didn't he have to step into the shoes of Prince Charming to find Cinderella, who turned out to be his tall swaggering classmate who sang "Beautiful Dreamer" beautifully? At that time, he had been so busy setting up the talent show and finding the mystery voice had brought immediate relief. The talent show came and went just like that and Brother hadn't been so stuck on Too Tall like he currently was.

WHOA.

Stuck on Too Tall?

Oh right… _smile_, Cousin Fred and Lenny are asking him something and lunch continues.

* * *

Too-Tall's favorite days are in this order: his birthday, his visits to see his mom, Halloween, and the first day of summer.

But no one had to know about the last one. It's why you see him today, the last day of school, chilling in the shade not really caught up in the buzz of yearbook signing or visiting teachers. Summer won't start for another two weeks and Too Tall's already planning to take that day off.

He ran his life as Too Tall you see, but he preferred to greet the season as himself. As Michael. But he'd rather chow down a baloney mustard sandwich for the rest of his school career before having anyone call him Mike or Mikey. Not even his family called him that and that's how he liked things. But unfortunately, Too Tall was always in the spotlight and Michael had a hard time fitting the mold of his own design.

That's why no one will ever come to his creek spot. His scowl turned into a frown as he remembered the brief twig snap.

He blew it off as some lost cub at first. But imaginations tend to take long winding turns and his happened to wind down the idea that some fur ball was spying on him. Jeering at Too Tall's happy solitude, probably running off to tell the neighborhood that Too Tall had gone soft.

He hadn't worked so hard on being Too Tall to have a crummy kid blow it for him. He was close to gnashing his teeth together but caught himself. He breathed deeply and willed himself to chill out before Skuzz and Smirk came back from wherever they went.

It wasn't long before the duo came back with shiny blue and white covers. Yearbooks, Too Tall reminded himself, as the duo approached him.

"C'mon Too Tall you better be the first to sign my yearbook!" Skuzz said, "Then I'll get Smirk of course and Lenny, Cousin Fred, Milton, Queenie, Brother, and for sure Honeybell."

Smirk laughed. "Honeybell sign your yearbook? Dream on!"

"Hey I got a plan," Smirk explained, handing his yearbook to Too Tall, "I'll ask her to sign her name AND number so that way we can hang out more. We are neighbors so it won't be a problem."

The trio turned quiet. Too Tall was impressed and Smirk flabbergasted.

"And maybe if we're good friends we can hang out as a group with you and Queenie."

Too Tall kept his hand steady as he scrawled his name across a page as well as the mandatory h.a.g.s. Going steady with Queenie?! Yeah she was popular and yeah so was he but fudge he couldn't-

"Heeey! What about me?" Smirk protested, "I wanna hang out too!"

"Then ask a girl and we can all go," Skuzz snapped, "hey Too Tall are you done?"

Too Tall mutely handed back the yearbook and grabbed Smirk's yearbook, having enough motive to change the h.a.g.s. to h.a.t.s.

Queenie and him together was a recipe for disaster anyway Too Tall looked at it. There wasn't a moment of silence with her and she got put out by his attitude real quick. He'd rather just enjoy the silence than have Queenie babble about Britney Bear or whatever new ice cream Dairy Bear was serving. It's not like his miserable allowance let him spend on luxuries besides the ocassional chewy gooey, and he even now he couldn't get those because of his cavitites.

Speaking of sweet, Honeybell was rapidly approaching Too Tall and his gang. Seriously why was she running towards them?

"Ooooof!" And Skuzz was on the ground, tackled by his pig-tailed crush.

"Way to _go_ Honey_bell_!" Smirk cheered her.

"You really left him breathless now," Too Tall added, helping both his friend and Honeybell off the ground. It was funny to see Skuzz open and close his mouth like a fish. Honeybell giggled and dragged off the other cub, waving to Smirk and Too Tall. Skuzz with his big goofy grin, let himself be dragged to where the girls played jump rope. Honeybell must have anticipated his move then and matched it. They would probably be going steady before the first week of the summer holiday.

Too Tall and Smirk found their way back to the cafeteria to get more signatures for Smirk's yearbook. As they were coming in, they almost bumped into Cousin Fred, Lenny and Brother.

"Hey guys," Cousin Fred greeted the gang, "actually now that we're here, why don't we sign each other's yearbooks?" He pulled out his yearbook and traded it with Smirk while Lenny surreptitiously walked past the gang. Most cubs steered clear of the gang because rumors still swirled. Now that they would be six graders, Too Tall would probably be more ruthless and scary and overall as unpleasant as the mumps and measles. And if Too Tall continued to grow at his rate, he would probably be a giant during the sixth grade!

Brother almost envied the ease in which Lenny slipped out of the group. Too Tall, luckily, had his attention elsewhere while Smirk and Fred finished each other's yearbooks. Brother kept his glance at what Freddie was signing; the earnest words of his cousin kinda made him barf. Aww what the heck-

"So Too Tall what are you going to do this summer?" He asked, it was a generic friendly-type question and he hoped his own curiosity hadn't seeped into his voice.

It was Too Tall's turn to be the gaping fish. Geez, Brother always knew what questions to ask didn't he, grumbled Too Tall. A summer of sleeping in for a week before it became unbearable and he was up at six in the morning so he could hike early to his creek spot, that's what he would most likely do. Even if he could spend time with his dad, they couldn't go to Grizzlyworld or BearyLand or even the Great Bear Mall. Admitting that Michael wanted all these things was weak, Too Tall decided two summers ago, so he kept his smirk and replied,

"Dunno Brother, maybe hike, play some sports, read comic books. The usual."

This was the part where Brother could gush about what his _mama_ and _papa_ had planned for the summer. Weekends at his grandparents' house and sleepovers with Freddie. Maybe the Bear family could only afford to go to the new Water park and Grizzlyworld because they reckon spoiling the cubs was bad for them. Someone please spare Too Tall the details.

Odd enough, his classmate was quiet, like he were seriously mulling over the extravagant summer of Too Tall Grizzly. Too Tall purposely left out details to make his summer seem so plain that no questions would be needed.

Brother, on the other hand, was bursting with a million questions. Reading comic books all summer got real tiring did Too Tall read anything else? Did he play sports with Skuzz and Smirk? What about his family? Didn't he hang out with his parents or sister or something? Where and When did Too Tall hike? Any favorite spots? He almost clamped his mouth with his paw ,remembering the day of the watermelon dare and Too Tall's dazzling smile.

Too Tall whistled, and Brother Bear was back from his thoughts. Freddie was not a best friend for nothing. Something was up but he didn't want to be hasty. He instead handed Smirk's yearbook to Brother who honestly couldn't muster more than a "happy summer!" in a tiny corner of the page.

"Listen guys we'd stay and chat and all but Brother and I have more people to ask for signatures," Freddie pulled on Brother's shirt, "have a great summer Smirk, Too Tall. Say hi to Skuzz for us." And they were gone.

Too Tall shrugged it off as nothing, something he liked to do in situations that he would handle later. He hoped his winded imagination wouldn't take him on other _wonderful _road trip. His summer didn't need to be spent thinking about his classmates or friends.

A/N: hope y'all enjoyed and have a nice day-


End file.
